Barnum, H. L.

1560-1624

Family Receipts, or, Practical Guide for the Husbandman
and Housewife: Containing a Great Variety of Valuable Recipes, Relating
to Agriculture, Gardening, Brewery, Cookery, Dairy, Confectionary, Diseases,
Farriery, Ingrafting, and the Various Branches of Rural and Domestic Economy:
To Which is Added a Plain, Concise, Method of Keeping Farmer's Accounts,
with Forms of Notes of Hand, Bills, Receipts, &c., &c.

Cincinnati: A. B. Roff, 1831.

This is the first cookery book printed in the Midwest, but it is much
more than just a book on cooking. According to the preface, "we doubt whether
any person (whose intellect is on a parallel with ours,) can produce such
a heterogenius mass of matter as may be found in the following pages, without
committing plagiarism." The first section deals with agriculture, covering
a wide variety of topics including three different methods for killing
cockroaches, advice on setting apple and other fruit trees on a light soil,
directions for the culture of the currant bush, and what perfumes are effective
in preventing moldiness. The next section is devoted to gardening, including
soil preparation, germination of seeds, techniques for transplanting and
grafting, and how to treat red spiders. This section ends with a section
giving short directios for cultivating garden vegetables, arranged alphabetically,
and also a calendarial index for gardeners, giving detailed advice for
each month. The third section of this book discusses the brewery including
how to brew ale in small families. The chapter on cookery gives "general
directions to the mistress of a family" and deals mainly with meats, poultry,
and fish. There in also a chapter on Dairy followed by a chapter on Confectionary.
The chapter on diseases not only describes the various aliments, but also
gives recipes for cures. Finally, there are chapters on ingrafting, detailing
a variety of methods for grafting, and farmers accounts, which give examples
of account books, promissory notes, bills, and receipts. Each section of
this work, which is written in a very practical, down-to-earth style, includes
citations from learned sources. There is a detailed index included.